Metallic Nanoparticles Come to the Rescue of DRAM

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee in India and Applied Materials have added metallic nanoparticles to dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) to eliminate row hammering (RH) data corruption in high-volume DRAM cells and new memory products.

The collaborators introduced nanoparticles in the gate of the access transistor, whose work function differs from the gate electrode which generates an energy valley between neighboring cells in the channel region. These valleys prevent diffusion of electrons from the aggressor cell to the victim cell, reducing the prevalence of RH fail. "Introducing the metal nanoparticles at the correct location is the main challenge, but with the state-of-the-art nanofabrication methods, it is certainly doable," says IIT's Sanjeev Manhas.

The team says the insertion of nanoparticles into DRAM gate stack engineering could be extended to digital logic technologies.